Monday, September 22, 2014

Main threat to
U.S., Russia: Radical Islam, not each other

Exclusive: William Murray urges nations to work together
'before it's too late for civilization'

William
Murray

The Russian Federation and the
United States face an existential threat no less lethal than the two nations
once faced from the Axis powers in World War II – a threat powered by an
ideology that literally worships death, an ideology whose adherents literally
love death more than the citizens of Russia and the United States love life
itself. A threat consisting not of thousands or millions of those willing to
die to bring about its final victory and domination over the world – but rather
hundreds of millions.

This threat is not new. The first
foreign war fought by the United States shortly after its founding was against
just one element of this threat. One battle in that war is immortalized in the
Marine Corps’ “Marines’ Hymn.”

For more than a millennium, raiding
parties kidnapped women for polygamous marriages to support this enemy of
civilization from as far north as Ireland and up the Volga River. The adherents
of this ideology pirated ships and took American sailors as slaves, and invaded
Slavic and Germanic lands several times. Even the Vatican was sacked to finance
the terror of the onslaught of this ideology.

Today, this common enemy, believing
that every word of a sixth-century warlord is the literal word of God, is
massively armed with modern weapons of warfare. The bulk of these weapons are
supplied by Western powers as were the cannons that brought down the walls of
Constantinople in the 15th century.

During the last century, this
threat has entered a new phase as civilians in Russia and the United States are
slaughtered in sophisticated acts of terror including bombings of trains,
planes, apartment buildings, schools and public squares. Russian children were
slaughtered at Beslan, and American kindergarteners killed at the World Trade
Center.

Astonishingly, these two great
nations, Russia and the United States, have addressed this modern existential
threat by supplying even more weapons to various elements of it. As recently as
2012 the United States was training and arming “moderate” elements of what is
now the Islamic State. As entire nations cease to exist and become havens for
jihadist training – such as in the case of Libya – Russia and the United States
focus their attention on defending their nations from each other.

As English and Russian speaking
jihadists fighters behead young Christian boys, rape young Christian girls and
use the heads of their victims as soccer balls, American spy planes and Russian
Bear bombers test each other’s defenses.

Rather than stripping nuclear
weapons from the dysfunctional Islamic government of Pakistan, which kills its
Christian citizens for crimes of blasphemy against Islam, that nation receives
even more American weapons, as Russia continues to arm Iran.

Let’s start with this one simple
goal that both nations should be able to agree on – save the single most
persecuted group of people in the world today – the Christians under Islamic
rule.

Let’s start with compassion.

The Russian Federation can make a
first move by opening its doors to some of the tens of thousands of Iraqi
Christians whose homes and churches have been destroyed.

The first appearance of Jesus
Christ after his Ascension was on the Road to Damascus. There he stopped Saul
on his mission to Damascus to persecute and kill Christians.

America can also make a move to
help the Christians of Syria by simply stopping the supply of weapons to the
Saudi mercenaries who are using that same road Jesus stopped Saul on, to travel
to Damascus to kill Christians.

The greatest common cause of Russia
and the United States today, the greatest threat, the existential threat, is
being ignored.

Yet, this existential threat cannot
be whisked away with political correctness or by pretending that an ideology of
hatred is peaceful.

This ideology gave the Christians
of the Middle East who are fleeing the same three options it offers the Jews of
Israel, the Christians of Russia and the secularists of the United States:

Convert, be enslaved or die.

But, for Russia and the United States
there is still a fourth option that no longer exists for over one-third of the
world – VICTORY.

That fourth choice cannot come
about without true American and Russian mutual trust and cooperation.

Let’s at least examine that fourth
choice before it is too late for civilization.

Note:
William J. Murray is also the director of
the Christmas for Refugees
program, which provides Christmas dinners for Christian refugee children from
Iraq and Syria each year. The program also supplies direct aid to Christian
families year round.